Jacob Besler’s Long Journey to Canada Part One: From Landestreu to Liverpool

I’ve written before about my grandfather’s life in Galicia here, and earlier about his arrival in Canada here. But only recently have I been able to fill in some gaps in between: how did he get from his small village in Galicia to the Canadian prairies? Here’s what I learned.

As the third son in the Besler family Jacob’s prospects in the tiny village of Landestreu were slim. Lured by the prospects of his own farm in Canada Jacob decided to seek his fortunes overseas. Everyone in Landestreu was related to each other so he likely had heard about villagers who had emigrated to Landestreu Saskatchewan. Accompanied by cousins Johann Kendel and Philip Besler he made his travel plans and in the spring of 1902 began his journey.

Jacob probably hadn’t ventured too far from his home in his life so he would have excited but on the other hand nervous about leaving Landestreu for good. The first step in the journey would have been to travel to one of the nearby towns to catch a train. The Galician Railway was extensive with about 1540 kilometres of lines connecting the eastern part of the Austro Hungarian Empire with Vienna, Berlin and Warsaw. 

The Lemberg-Czernowitz Line was built in 1866 and included a station at Stanislau (now Stanisławów), the closest to Landestreu. If the travellers were lucky they would have been transported by horse and cart. Jacob’s passport listed his occupation as Wagner (wagon driver) so he may have had access to a cart which would have shortened the nine hour walk. Once in Stanislau they would have boarded a train for the first step of their journey to Lemberg (now Lviv).

Stanislau Station https://sudilovski.livejournal.com/77246.html

Lemberg Station Interior https://sudilovski.livejournal.com/77246.html

Lemberg reception building https://sudilovski.livejournal.com/77246.html 

 

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In Lemberg Jacob and his cousins would have visited one of the many travel agents whose windows were decorated with posters meant to lure travellers in. They would have discovered that it was cheaper to travel to Canada instead of the US as the government subsidized the emigration cost via a fee paid to travel agents for each immigrant they booked. They also would have discovered that an indirect route to Canada was cheaper than a direct journey. That meant sailing from a port such as Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp, Danzig, Stettin or Rotterdam to Grimsby, Humber or Hull in the UK. 

A train would then take them to Liverpool where they would board a ship sailing to Canada. The package they purchased would have included the cost of food and lodging, train ticket to the port, steamship ticket to Hull, train ticket to Liverpool and steamship ticket to Canada. The cost was about $40-50 or about $2000 in 2023 Canadian dollars, a not insubstantial amount of money. The group paid the sum and headed off on a journey that would have taken about 3 weeks in total.

 

The only passenger lists easily accessible for this period are the Hamburg passenger lists. I was unfortunately unable to find Jacob and his companions on any of lists for ships sailing from Hamburg to either Grimsby or London in the spring of1902. It’s most likely that they sailed to the port of Hull/Grimsby, probably via the Wilson Lines as the train trip to Liverpool was the shortest route to a port in terms of time and distance.

Special immigrant trains left Hull at 11 am on Monday arriving in Liverpool at 2 to 3 pm that day, though trains could run on an “as needed” basis linked with the regularity of Wilson Line steamships. The railway carriages left directly from Victoria Dock in Hull and ended at Riverside Quay in Liverpool - the travellers weren’t allowed to visit either city as officials didn’t want to chance disease ridden migrants mixing with townsfolk. The immigrant trains took precedence over others due to their length - there were sometimes so many emigrants that 17 carriages were pulled by one steam engine. Baggage was stored in the rear four carriages. The trains were low standard 3rd class carriages equipped with wooden benches to sit on and no toilets.

 

Paragon Station Hull, photo by Richard Croft

Once in Liverpool the travellers would stay in immigrant lodging houses until their ship to North America was ready. The stay could take from 1-10 days. The Dominion sailed for Quebec on a Thursday so Jacob and his companions would have had a few days to cool their heels. 

Liverpool Mercury June 2 1902 findmypast.co.uk

The Dominion was a huge ship weighing 7.000 tons, built in Belfast in 1894 and originally named the Prussia. It was purchased by the Dominion Line from the Hamburg America Line in 1898 and renamed the Dominion. The ship measured 445 feet by 50 feet and could carry 1120 passengers: 200 1st class, 170 2nd class and 750 3rd class. In 1902 the ship had already crossed the Atlantic three times, heading for Portland in January, March and April. The June crossing to Quebec was the first and only of the season as the season for travel to Canada was short due to ice in the St Lawrence River.

I was able to locate the passenger list for Jacob’s voyage from Liverpool. His name was misspelled as “Pessler”, a common error. The Landestreu party were 3 out of 722 third class passengers, the new and improved term for steerage class. It was interesting to note that English, Scottish and Irish passengers were listed first, before the “foreigners”. Included in this group were 75 British Home Children ranging in age from 3 to 18. All third class passengers were bound for Quebec. The 99 second class and 40 first class passengers were bound for Montreal. 

findmypast.co.uk

The morning of June 5 was cool and overcast with a light breeze. The 861 passengers queued up and boarded the Dominion. Under the command of Master Jones the ship began the 9 day trip to Quebec.

To be continued …